NUFORC Sighting 42174

Occurred: 1970-06-10 21:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2005-02-24 19:28 Pacific
Duration: less than one minute
No of observers: 1

Location: West Ocean City, MD, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Sighting to the North of Ocean City, Maryland at about the same date as that in Princess Anne, MD

I am not quite sure of the date, but I do recall that I was around 11 or 12 when this event occured to me. And it seems to coincide with a report on the same day from Princess Anne which is due West-South-West of Ocean City, MD. I would have been 11 in June of 1970, my birthday being August 17, 1958.

I saw a fast moving object in the North Sky, at an elevation of between 45 and 60 degrees. It was nothing more to me than a bright light, but what struck me was its speed and dissimilar shape to that of surrounding stars. To me, an Amateur Astronomer, it appeared that if all the surrounding stars were between magnitude 5 to 8 this object was closer in magnitude to 3 to 1. It was that stark in the night sky, and I have to tell you 1970 was a time in Ocean City when light-pollution was not a problem. Often during the summer months one could easily see the bright belt of the Milky Way tracing across the sky at about 12 o'clock high.

This object traversed almost straight across the sky, as I said at a high velocity, but suddenly it turn north, and began to sink slightly and veer off to the left. Then all of a sudden it was gone.

Needless to say I was dumb-founded, and terrified at the same time. I would not tell anyone of what I saw out of fear of being ridiculed as a kid with a very active imagination.

My guess is that the event sighting in Princess Anne was to do surveillence over the Wallops Island NASA facility, and the sighting I made might have been the same craft or another one altogether. I surmise it was doing surveillence at Dover AFB, which is relative to the direction I reported seeing the craft traverse the night sky.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this sighting upset, but it did, I was more scared at what I saw than I was excited, and for years I wondered if anyone else saw the same or similar events.

I came to your site after seeing it the ABC News Special Report on UFOs which aired this evening (24 FEB 2005) and when I researched your database for Maryland sightings I was shocked to find something similar occured in Princess Anne at about the same time. To me, this is no mere coincidence, for I am certain that what I saw that night WAS NOT a star, nor a meteor, nor a comet, its path of progress across the sky was too varied an the turn that it made to the north, which was abrupt, does not coincide with any natural law pertaining to heavenly bodies.

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that date of the event is approximate. PD

Posted 2005-04-16